


Rooftop Romance

by BatsuGames



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Cute Zen | Ryu Hyun, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Jealous Zen | Ryu Hyun, Protective Zen | Ryu Hyun, Romantic Friendship, Smoking, exercise, rooftop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28794102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatsuGames/pseuds/BatsuGames
Summary: You'd moved in five months ago, but this was the first time you'd met Zen on the rooftop of the apartment block you both lived in.Asking for him to light up a cigarette begins a friendship.
Relationships: Zen | Ryu Hyun/Original Female Character(s), Zen | Ryu Hyun/Reader
Kudos: 18





	Rooftop Romance

**Author's Note:**

> Hate using y/n or --- so a stand in name meaning nothing is used maybe once or twice.

You go out onto the rooftop garden of the apartment complex, laptop and Wacom in your bag. You bop your head to the music from your headset, cigarette between lips as you open the door carelessly, strolling out with confidence in your gait. You see silver in the side of your vision and look, nodding distractedly at the gorgeous man to the side and go to the other side. Feeling the curious look on you, you don’t look back, setting your stuff up. It’d felt stuffy in your apartment as you’d been in there four a couple days without leaving, working on freelance work. A programmer and illustrator, you could work wherever there was an internet connection.

Right now, you wanted a night scene for the background of a website for a client, and so here you were, standing before the backstreets view from one of the taller buildings and doing semi-practise pieces. About fifteen minutes had gone by before you recall the cigarette in between lips and pat your thick jacket, followed by sweatpants. “Ngh. Must’ve forgot it,” You mutter in English. You look over to the silver haired man. “Excuse me, gorgeous, do you have a lighter?”

He blinks at you and then smiles. “I do.” He comes over, digging around in a pocket. “Are you new here?”

Pulling down your headphones from the trance music playing, you give him a grin. “I’ve been here about five months. Name’s Oriana, call me Ori.”

“Zen,” The man replies, holding the lighter up and you block it from the wind.

Cigarette lit, and you wink. “Thanks. Want one?”

Zen thinks on it. “I should quit.”

You hold your hands up and step back. “Stick with quitting. Don’t pay attention to me being terrible to myself. I’m apartment three.”

“Basement.” He chuckles at your wince. “I’ve lived there for years. What are you drawing?”

“Oh, well, I make websites or illustration and animations for clients online. Mostly a programmer though. One is wanting an inner city night time theme,” You say and wave at the view you both had. “Hence me here. What do you do, Zen?”

“I’m in musical theatre as an actor,” Zen informed, and felt good when you smiled at him, intrigued. “My last performance was in ‘Jealousy Threat’.”

Light came to your eyes. “I think my friend went to go see that and he really enjoyed it. Something about an apple?”

Zen chuckled and nodded. “Yes, there’s this whole metaphor about it.”

“Tell me?” You say. “And do you mind if I draw you?”

His brows rise, but the twenty-six year old nods. Slowly, he tells you, and your gaze goes from him to the laptop you were working on, and you prompted further talk to keep him there. When he was part of the way explaining a different role, you suddenly turned the laptop around. It was him with his half empty can on beer in one hand, one leg over the other and elbow on knee with the hand holding it chin up while the other arm relaxed over it. There was something that was sketch-realistic about it, but also somewhat cartoon like. He looked stylised and attractive, some parts coloured in, like an eye, some of his hair, a shoe, and the parka jacket he was wearing. There were also colour dots to the sides of his clothing.

It was… really good.

“I’m impressed!”

You grin at him. “You’re fun to draw in something like this.” You wave the stylus around. “Relaxed in your own space. Or maybe this is just my preference of how to draw people?” You muse, tapping the stylus to your lip. “Eh. Anyway, I’ll finish this up inside and maybe I can meet you here sometime this week? I’ll be up here the next few nights.” You stand, shutting your laptop and putting the drawing pad on top.

He joins you, wanting to see you again. “I’ll be here sometime, yes.”

“Until then, Zen.” You nod and leave first, wanting a shower.

Zen watches you go, swallowing, feeling attraction.

.

You see him a few days as you finish up drawing the nightscape properly. “Hey, hey, Zen.”

“Ori, good to see you! Did you have a good day?” The man comes over, smiling at you.

“I got a couple new clients so yes, money is coming in, I can live off of better food, and I’m just about finishing up and getting paid again tonight,” You reply, grinning at him, typing away now. “How about you, gorgeous? Done any more performances?”

“The next couple days I’ll have this role, and then that’s the six week showing done,” Zen tells you, sitting next to you and watching your fingers fly. “You’re quick.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s just practise after a while.” You go quiet, focused, and you barely pay attention to him cracking a can open. “So, six weeks is quite lengthy, it must be a pretty big show?”

“It was one of my biggest ones, and definitely the longest,” He says, sipping his drink, smiling.

“Good for you, mate, I’m happy for you. It sounds like you’re proud, so it must be a big deal for you, no?” You inquire, pausing to look at him.

Zen grins at you. “It was, yeah. Want some?” He offers.

“Sure.” You take the can. “Hm?” You make the sound as he gets up.

“Back in a bit. Gotta grab something.” He smiles wider, playful, and goes in. “Drink up!”

Nodding, you lift it to your mouth with, “Ah, right.” You glug some down and put it next to you, finishing up some coding. You work through the website, making sure it all works, and then give the green light to it. Sending it off to your client, you get a response a couple minutes later, and the receipt to the bill you gave over. The phone goes as you hear Zen come up, and smile at the addition to your bank account. You were saving up for a nice house in the outer suburbs of Seoul, hence living in this box of an apartment on the cheap, just another year or so and you’d be golden.

“Sorry for the wait,” Zen apologizes, coming over with a bag. “Here.” He hands you a fresh can and there’s also a fish shaped bread after it.

“Thank you! Oh, this is the bread from that guy with the stall! This stuff is so fluffy,” You grin at him.

The silver haired man sat by you, pleased. “You’re western, so I figure you’d appreciate it more than some of my Korean friends when I tell them about it. Dieting is the excuse.”

“Bleh to that.” You happily take a bite. “It’s great! Thank you, Zeeen.” You nudge his shoulder with yours, a bit playful. “Food makes me happy. I’m so easily satisfied, it’s so bad.” You giggle around another bite.

“Oh, so you want a chef as your boyfriend?” He teased, but was actually curious.

“Again, I‘m easy, get me a cute guy in generally good fitness that’s laid back and into the same stuff as me and can cook well, and I’m pleased. I’m good at housework, so I’ll leave cooking to him,” You think out loud, looking up at the sky. “Hopefully he doesn’t mind a dog. I really want a dog. What about you? What sweet little lady gets you going?”

“Actually, what you said is good for me,” Zen agrees, taking you in, wondering if his next words would scare you off. “I’m kind of a possessive guy too, and I like a lot of affection.”

“Oooh, I didn’t think about that,” You admit, humming after. “Depends on the possessiveness. If it’s a guy going ‘I wanna bite and mark,’ when you’re getting passionate? I’m good with that, just nothing on the neck… well, if we aren’t going anywhere for a few days then maybe it’s okay.” You grin at the thought, then you shake your head. “But if it’s who’s that guy, why you talking to him alone? Then I’m like, my guy, chill, it’s a friend. Affection is good, though. I haven’t dated in a while. You?”

“Next to no time. I think you’re the closest I’ve been to a date in about three years,” The actor ponders on it, looking up.

You put a hand to your heart and the other to his upper arm, trying not to fondle when you feel the muscle. “I’m a so sorry I am the closest to it.”

It makes him laugh, and he kind of likes the warmth of your hand on him. “I’m trying to get up in popularity, get on television shows, so it’s better to not be in scandals.”

You take your hand off him and nod. “Sure. Sounds lonely though. You’re contractually obliged not to, or…?”

“Nothing like that, just hard to sort out the real from the fake.”

“I can only wish you luck in your future endeavours, my good sir.”

.

About four, nearly five months of this passes, with you two meeting on the roof pretty much every night now, fast friends.

He’d begun to have you go through exercise routines with him a month into the friendship when you’d grunted once and stretched, your back cracking. He guided you through a set of yoga positions he did with you, and then it went into repetitions as well. Admittedly you’d seen the positive changes in your body, especially when he found your poor diet choices and pestered you to eat well too. You had a six pack now, like, what the hell? That was badass! There was times you’d gone out with him at some after show party and the two of your drunkenly walked home, but most of your together time was an hour or two at night up here. In return for his exercises and sometimes his meals, you helped him with his lines which took up a good chunk of time.

Sometimes he went on dates, but…

“She was just so… dull!” Zen sighed. “Pretty but bland.”

“A most scathing review from the genial and lovely Zen,” You recognise, finishing up a large bit of coding. “She must have frustrated you to tears?”

“Yes!” He slumped by you, loosely grasping your arm as it moved and liked the connection. “Are you done yet? I want to exercise,” He slightly whined, free with his words and moods when around you.

“Baby, am I stopping you? Go pose for me and let me see that body in action,” You half-flirt, other hands tracing the inside of his arm. It makes him feel good, you knew, and the smug smile on his face was confirmation of it. You watch as he does so, looking at you as he takes his top off, and you shake your head at him, tonguing your canine. “You’re terrible. Shameless.”

“Only for you,” He retorts with a wink, showcasing himself and liking your eyes trailing down him for a moment.

Laughing, you continue to work, and finally send off the work to your client a god twenty minutes later. “Done! Time to exercise.” You take off your coat and thin gloves, in exercise leggings and sports bra and running shoes. It got warm quickly when working out. You had also always worn a t-shirt but, hey, maybe you were in the mood for some male attention. You were bigger in chest than most of the women of this land and usually covered up but, eh. Zen had helped you get a good body. “Alright, let’s begin!” You begin to stretch.

To your pleasure, you could feel his eyes on you as you got into a yoga pose he was doing, the cobra pose.

“And the next pose…” Zen murmurs, noting during yoga you didn’t open your eyes anymore. The bow pose looked just as good, and he watched you instead of putting much effort into it himself. You looked _good_. He went on for the next ones, and then gave the final one, “Corpse pose.” The sigh you did was delectable to his ears. “And that’s us done.”

“Mhm…” You barely pat attention, feeling stretched out.

“Sit ups!” He said cheerfully to distract from your chest.

“Nooooo, Zen,” You whine a little, wanting to relax.

“Yes, Ori.” He grabs your ankles, and with a groan, you begin the sit ups, unhappy and glowering at him. “It’s for our health!”

“More like your pleasure at another’s pain,” You grunt out, coming up and then down again. “Sets of twenty?”

The actor nodded, able to get a nice view down your sports bra when you came up and couldn’t help but notice that your nipples were hard from the cold. He closed his eyes, doing his best to keep his grin on. “Sets of twenty.” You swapped, and your fingers wrapped around his ankles were weighty presences on his conscience.

“You know, on the subject, I got asked out the other day,” You say, and he stops at sixteen, staring at you blankly. “I’m not that undateable, jeez. I do actually look kinda pretty, it’s just you always see me all sweaty in workout clothing or in lazy home clothing.”

“I didn’t say that! And you’re pretty all the time. Just, who? I didn’t think you got out that often?” He asks quickly, frowning and looking at you. “Did you like him? Was it a good date? When was it?”

Chuckling, you drawl, “Yes, the date that I’ve not been to yet because it’s tomorrow. I was just asked out. Figure I may as well. He’s nice.” You shrug, not really thinking about it when Zen looked funny.

Zen wasn’t going to let it go though, feeling a little angry at this guy he’d never met. “That’s it? Nice? A decent meal is nice, a hat is nice, a date should be more than nice. Don’t bother with him. You can do better. He’s probably after you for less than stellar reasons. You are a good-looking woman with a good job and engaging personality,” He pushed, not wanting it to happen.

“Uh?”

“When did you meet?”

“About two weeks ago, at the course I’m on in robotics, we’ve been talking online since then…” You trail off when he doesn’t seem like he remembers. “I told you about the course a month ago?”

“It’s already been a month?!” Zen exhales hard, finishing his reps. “Tch. I should have paid more attention.”

“To what?”

“You dating-Ow!” You’d smacked his arm and he gave a wounded look. “What?!”

You narrow your eyes at him. “Why bother listening to me if you’re not even going to be a good friend when I talk about my future and you don’t remember it? That’s hurtful, cause I sure as hell remember your theatre shows!”

Zen winces. “Sorry, I do remember it’s a SU University and it’ll be specialised year course, and you got sponsorship and you were worried you’d not be good enough and surrounded by too many guys and you wore a pair of new shoes you got on sale to an interview for a job at some bland company.”

“Hmph. Fine,” You grumble. “I was going to ditch you for that but… you’re off the hook.” You slump back, unimpressed.

“I didn’t mean to make my career the focus of our friendship,” Zen softly tells you and when you made some noise, he gets on all fours over yous legs. “Will you forgive me?”

You look away. “Hmm.”

Zen smirks lightly. “You want something good to eat, right?”

You scoff, arms crossing. “You can’t buy me over with food, albino boy.”

Eyes glimmering at your grumbles, he snickers. “I’ll buy us something tasty?” He offers, ducking closer with a knowing grin.

“…Spicy pork hock.”

“And so the princess’s weakness is revealed once more!”

That makes you laugh. “Hey!” You shift up on elbows, a knee dropping, your face close to his face. “I’m not that bad, yeah?”

Zen doesn’t lose the grin, definitely not looking at how spread open you were, and how good you looked and how much _he_ now wanted to eat. “Right, because you’re not giving into food?”

“Oh, so our friendship is worth little to-Ahahaha!” You cackled at him tickling your sides. “Stop, fiend! FIEND!”

“It’s really not.”

“Then why didn’t you recall sooner, huh, you punk?”

He was too busy trying not to have a boner, in all honesty, but he couldn’t say that. “Maybe I was a bit jealous of having to share your attention with another guy.”

“Oh. Well. Okay. Reps?” You offer up, not sure where to go after that.

“Yeah, reps. Listen, I care about you,” He pushed, the pair of you getting back into sit ups, “A lot. So-” You both look over as a different renter comes onto the rooftop. “Hey, Ye-jin.” You both wave at the man who came up to get away from a nagging wife, and with that, the previous conversation dried up and you’d parted with a smile and wave after finishing up reps.

Damn.

He put his chin in hand and looked away, a bit pissed off with himself. It’d been months and only now when you were dating did he realise he liked you. Dating others had probably led you to think he wasn’t into you either and it was friends only. He closed his eyes, leaning his head back.

.

It… went pretty well with Hoseung in all honesty.

And you could tell Zen wasn’t happy about it when you told him with a smile on your face. “Of course, he doesn’t really like smokers, so I should give those up…” You muse, looking up at the sky. It was getting cold, huh?

Zen was looking out to the cityscape, leaning forearms on cold concrete, scowling a little. The fact he would have to share your time bothered him more than he would admit. A friend fine, even a guy friend, fine… but a date? He looked to you when you lean an arm on his shoulder, looking bemused at him. Was he not your type or something? He was good looking, fit, excellent at singing and dancing and doing a role, good with memorization and, sure, he may not be stable money-wise, but, he was getting big! He’d done adverts on television. He was in profitable productions now. He even did some work with Jumin and C&R. Even Seven said he didn’t really need to keep the triptor bot up anymore because he was good enough. “Hm? Oh, yeah, but if you’re giving up, then do it for you.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been thinking about it already and there’s always,” You flash the back of the cigarette pack where necrotic lungs were shown, “This. You know? Maybe I just needed that extra push to realise my motivation in actually doing so.”

“Everyone needs that from time to time,” The actor replied, and then saw you shiver. It was near the end of the year. “Let’s go to my apartment and watch a film or something.” Then he didn’t have to hear you talk about _Hoseung._

Having never been, you nod. “Sure. Got any horror?”

“Oh, you like that genre? Good! I have a good few movies we can choose from.” Zen grabbed your hand, longer fingers enveloping your cold digits. “Tch, you should’ve said earlier you were cold,” He scolded, only getting a little smirk from you that did things to him.

“Your hand seems to be doing a good job of getting me hot,” You quip saucily and you had to grab him from nearly completely slipping down the stairs around his waist and falling on your butt on the first step down. You laugh, arms around his chest and hugging him to you tightly, your cold cheek against his warm neck. “Aw, Zennikins, I made you fall for me!” You cackle at the roll of the eyes and groan he gives, standing up and holding a hand to you. Taking it, you get up. “Thanks.”

“You’ve never been so open like this?”

“Huh… I guess I’m just now in available for dating mode? Now I’ve gone on one date, I guess I’m kind of now more open to looking whereas before I was into working and saving up for a house?”

Moving? Well, yes, naturally the actor knew you would move, because this was just a pit stop place with how small it was, and hey, if you wanted a boyfriend then maybe that would mean a fiancée and then family and… Zen kind of wanted to try it with you? “Open to looking?” Looking down at the hand of yours he held still, he looked up at you, two steps below you. “Would you like to go on a date with me?” The prettiest fluster came over your face, and to his delight, you gave a bit of an embarrassed look and nodded. “Really?!”

Smiling a bit more naturally even if still a bit suddenly shy, you reply, “I didn’t think you were interested in me.”

“ _Not-?_ ” Zen choked. “Let me definitely change that! Come, come!” He pulled you closer more eagerly. “I’ll make you a dinner, should we have this as our first date?”

Blindsided, you just laugh a bit lost, but for it, “Okay! Yeah, let’s do that! One more thing?”

“Hm?” Zen’s eyes widen when you lean down and kiss him, and dumbstruck, he realises he may just be a lot in love with you as one kiss from you heats him up so thoroughly it rocks him. Closing his eyes, he joins in, making sure to give you the best kiss of his life. Shifting away, leaving you with bruised lips and half-lidded eyes, breathing hard, you look more gorgeous than ever, and yeah, yeah he does love you.

Secretly, he can’t wait to tell you.

.

**Author's Note:**

> Something sweet and fluffy and cute~


End file.
